Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Varadkar for opening the debate on this matter. Some aspects of the Bill are premature but it is useful to have the debate nonetheless. I hope that further down the road we will be able to get agreement across the House on the way forward.

As Deputy Brady indicated, the Government has moved on this issue. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, have gone outside their previous remits in dealing with the appointment of CEOs. Generally speaking, the chairmen appointed by a Minister are of the highest quality. Reference has been made to the Dublin Transport Authority, to which the former county manager of Fingal, Mr. William Soffe, has been appointed. He is a man of integrity and vast experience and he is very familiar with the Dublin area from his time as deputy manager of Dublin City Council and subsequently as manager of Fingal County Council.

The appointment of a chairman by a Minister is not bad, per se. We must appoint people of quality, probity and integrity. The Ministers I mentioned publicly advertised positions and fortunately we are getting the right people for positions. That is the way it should be.

Fine Gael should wait for the publication of the OECD report on public service appointments and we could then have a completely informed debate. I hope the combination of the report and the input of the Opposition could bring about a position of transparency, which we all want to see. Organisations like the HSE and the National Roads Authority should be accountable to the Houses, and that should be the next stage in terms of accountability and transparency.

I congratulate the Deputy for initiating this debate and facilitating the airing of opinions on all sides of the House. We should also hear professional views such as that of the OECD report. As a Dáil we should not make decisions without reference to professional bodies; we should listen to professional recruitment firms, for example, which help appoint top executives in the biggest businesses in the country on a daily basis. They would also have much international experience and, collectively, such ideas could facilitate the publication of a Bill which could be supported by all parties, either by way of Private Members' Business or a Government Bill. I am not concerned about who introduces it as long as we get the right result.

The reference to the position of chief executive is very important. It is essential for us to get the right people into position in order to make the important decisions required of all our State bodies, particularly in the current recessionary climate. I remain to be convinced that the Dáil having powers to sanction appointees is the right way to go. I would hate to think of us sitting around checking out an individual, asking whether his or her granny beat his or her grandad, for example. We have seen how in America the gory details can be brought into the public domain. There are aspects of a person's life which do not impinge on his or her ability to do a job and, whatever way we tackle the issue, I would hate to think of this Dáil engaging in a personal attack on a private individual.

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